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Ohio's Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber recently unveiled a plan to attract foreign businesses that includes a new six-story building in downtown Youngstown that would serve as the city's World Trade Center, the Warren Tribune Chronicle reports.

The proposed $9 million trade center would be financed by foreign investors through the federal government's EB-5 visa program. The program allows such foreigners to gain eligibility to obtain a U.S. green card if they invest $1 million (or $500,000 in some areas) in projects that create or maintain at least 10 full-time jobs.

The second phase of the city's plan to attract foreign investors would be to create a distribution center, possibly in Trumbull County, according to Eric Planey, the chamber's vice president for international business attraction.

Planey said the chamber has had initial talks about the distribution center, which could be located near the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport in Vienna, Ohio, for better transportation accessibility.

"If a company wants to come to this area, they'll probably want access to a distribution center because of our location," he said.

Planey told the news provider that he is working with someone in Asia to put together a group of investors. Of the 4,218 visas issued through the EB-5 visa program in fiscal 2009, 1,979 were issued to investors from China, giving the country the highest number of successful EB-5 investors for that year.

Planey also added that enough organizations have discussed the potential building that more than 30 percent of the facility could potentially be leased. He said that that number is typical for commercial projects that are just beginning.

The building, which is targeted for the land at 201-205 Federal Plaza West in Youngstown, would offer office space that focused on small and medium-size foreign businesses, according to Planey. He said that space for information technology, legal and a variety of business services would be offered.

"These would be profitable businesses in their home country," he told the Tribune Chronicle. "A lot will be starting fresh in North America. The faster we can help them, the better it is for us."

The building would be owned by the potential investor group as a separate limited liability corporation, but would be managed by the chamber or one of its organizations, according to Planey.

He said the chamber hopes that ground can be broken on the project during the first half of 2011, with a desired completion date one year later.